Slumdog Millionaire wins Producer's Guild Award

Producer’s Guild of America Awards 2009

[These pretty much echoed the Golden Globes and Critic's Choice awards]

Movie: Slumdog Millionaire
Animated Film: Wall-E
Documentary: Man On Wire

Long Form Television: John Adams
Episodic Comedy: 30 Rock
Episodic Drama: Mad Men
Non-Fiction TV: 60 Minutes
Live Entertainment/Competition TV: The Colbert Report

They should combine several of these shorter ones (SAG) and hold them all together, these plus the SAG's & CC's could be done in less than 3 hrs!

Screen Actors Guild Awards

The SAG awards results (held on Jan 25th). They give awards only to actors (the award is called The Actor®) - and the word "actress" is prohibited. They also give awards for ensemble acting, and for both film and tv.
Can't you just hear the kids at home: "Hey, mommy won The Actor" - "Wow! Is it Tom Cruise?"

2009 SAG Winners (career totals shown)

Film
Ensemble Cast: Slumdog Millionaire
Lead Actress: Meryl Streep (Doubt, 2nd, but 1st for film)
Lead Actor: Sean Penn (Milk, 1st)
Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader, 2nd)
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (Dark Knight, 1st)
Stunt Ensemble, film: The Dark Knight

TV
Ensemble Cast, Comedy: 30 Rock
Lead Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey (30 Rock)
- Tina Fey – 2nd and 3rd awards
Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
- Alec Baldwin – 3rd and 4th awards
Ensemble Cast, Drama: Mad Men
Lead Actor, Drama: Hugh Laurie (House, 2nd)
Lead Actress, Drama: Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters, 1st)
Actress, Movie or Miniseries: Laura Linney (John Adams, 1st)
Actor, Movie or Miniseries: Paul Giamatti (John Adams, 1st)
Stunt Ensemble, tv: Heroes

Lifetime Achievement: James Earl Jones (who has NO Oscars, while Denzel Washington has two, and Forrest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman, and Halle Berry one each; is there no justice in Oscar-ville? That's the greatest voice in film history we're talking about, and the 2nd greatest, John Houseman, also has an Oscar)

Quotes
“I can’t decide if I want to make out with Tony Hopkins or Diane Lane. Doesn’t Tony look great?” – Alec Baldwin

“My daughter puts on makeup and says ‘I look like Barack Obama’ – I don’t know where she got the idea that it’s cool to look like a politician. One day she’s gonna see 30 Rock on YouTube and ask ‘what do you mean, no residuals?’” – Tina Fey

“My dad was a stuntman, and I think you just saw some of his work underneath the horses.” – Sally Field (after a montage of great film stunts)

"Thanks for this ensemble award - some of these folks we just picked up off the street" - Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)

“In Genesis, it says that God shaped man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostril; I don’t mean to embarrass any of you, but an actor does the same thing with a role.” – James Earl Jones

“I would just like to add, Paul Newman, somebody down here likes you.” – James Earl Jones (a reference to Newman’s first big film, “Somebody Up There Likes Me”)

“Something happened to me making this film, and I now notice that these statues have nice packages.” – Sean Penn

The official SAG site nominations and winners:
Screen Actors Guild


My Comments: I discovered 30 Rock on dvd, and love it. The beauty of the dvd's is 8 episodes per disk (about 3 hrs) with no commercials! Excellent writing, and Alec Baldwin is perfect, he's a terrific comic actor. Best thing on network tv right now, which isn't saying much at all unless you like amateur singing, amateur dancing, amateur's surviving, or people losing weight as a contest. How LOW have we sunk?

I read Bernard Schlink's book "The Reader" and liked it a lot. I like the SciFi premise of Benjamin Button, if done right these stories can be enchanting. My favorite so far is Wall-E, sadly, it's destined to win nothing but animation awards. I haven't seen Slumdog yet, but I look forward to it.

Too late for wagering! -- the Jman, El Presidenté

2009 Golden Globe Awards - Slumdog and Winslet Big Winners

Slumdog Millionaire won the big awards, and four total, but Kate Winslet won both Best Actress and Supporting Actress, her first two Golden Globe awards.

2009 Golden Globe Award Winners

[Movies]
Drama Film: Slumdog Millionaire
Comedy/Musical Film: Vicki Christina Barcelona
Director, Film: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Actress, Mus/Comedy Film: Sally Hawkins, Happy Go
Actor, Mus/Comedy Film: Colin Farrell, In Bruges
Actress, Dramatic Film: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
Actor, Dramatic Film: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Supporting Actress, Film: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Supporting Actor, Film: Heath Ledger, Dark Knight
Animated Film: Wall-E (Pixar/Disney)
Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir (Ari Kohlman?)
Screenplay, Film: Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy)
Music Score, Film: Slumdog Millionaire (A.R. Ruhman)
Original Song, Film: Bruce Springsteen, “The Wrestler”, The Wrestler

[TV]
TV Drama Series: Mad Men
TV Comedy or Musical Series: 30 Rock
TV Film or Miniseries: John Adams (Tom Hanks, prod.)
Actor, TV Film or Miniseries: Paul Giamatti, John Adams
Actress, TV Film or Miniseries: Laura Linney, John Adams
Actress, TV Drama: Anna Paquin, True Blood
Actor, TV Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
Actress, TV Comedy/Musical: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Actor, TV Comedy/Musical: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Supporting Actress, TV: Laura Dern, Recount
Supporting Actor, TV: Tim Wilkinson, John Adams

Complete list of all nominations and winners, official site:
2009 Golden Globe Nominations

Who else agrees: Salma Hayak should be Miss Golden Globes until further notice!
...the Jman

Slumdog Millionaire wins Critics Choice Award

Director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire won the Critic's Choice award as Best Picture, Boyle won director and the film won five awards overall at Thursday nights Critic's Choics awards for 2008 films.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Action Picture: The Dark Knight
Best Comedy Picture: Tropic Thunder
Best Animated Picture: Wall-E
Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Best Actress: (tie) Meryl Streep, Doubt; Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Supp. Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Supp. Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Documentary: Man on Wire
Best Foreign Film: Waltz with Bashir - this animated film about Palestine took four years to complete and the director had three kids while working on it!
Best TV Movie: John Adams - before presenting this award, Sarah Silverman said "because we all know the best films are being made for tv"

Here's a link to all nominations and winners:
2009 Critics Choice Awards

Note: When Dustin Hoffman went to announce Best Picture, he first said "it's a three-way tie!" -- then "Just kidding...."

Heath Ledger may become the second posthumous Oscar winner for acting, after Peter Finch (Network - "I'm mad a hell!") Here is his first award; personally, I prefer Jack Nicholson, the Joker was a joker, remember, not a morbid sadistic psycho; Ledger was better in Brokeback Mountain, imo, even though that's my least favorite Larry McMurtry (Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon) screenplay.

Academy Awards for Foreign Language Film

Oscar® winning Foreign Language Films
Followed by country and director

1947: Shoeshine (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1948: Monsieur Vincent (France) Maurice Cloche
1949: The Bicycle Thief (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1950: The Walls of Malapaga (France/Italy) Rene Clement
1951: Rashomon (Japan) Akira Kurosawa
1952: Forbidden Games (France) Rene Clement
1953: No Award
1954: Gate of Hell (Japan) Teinosuke Kinugasa
1955: Samurai 1:Musashi Miyamoto (Japan) Hiroshi Inagaki
1956: La Strada (Italy) Federico Fellini
1957: Nights of Cabaria (Italy) Federico Fellini
1958: Mon Uncle (France) Jacques Tati
1959: Black Orpheus (France) Marcel Camus
1960: The Virgin Spring (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1961: Through a Glass Darkly (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1962: Sundays and Cybele (France) Serge Bourguignon
1963: 8 ½ (Italy) Federico Fellini
1964: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1965: The Shop on Main St (Czechoslovakia) Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos
1966: A Man and a Woman (France) Claude Lelouch
1967: Closely Watched Trains (Czechoslovakia) Jiri Menzel
1968: War and Peace (Russia) Sergei Bondarchuk
1969: Z (Algeria) Constantin Costa-Gavras
1970: Investigation of A Citizen Above Suspicion (Italy) Elio Petri
1971: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Italy) Vittorio DeSica
1972: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (France) Luis Buñuel
1973: Day for Night (France) Francois Truffaut
1974: Amarcord (Italy) Federico Fellini
1975: Dersu Uzala (Soviet Union/Japan) Akira Kurosawa
1976: Black and White in Color (Ivory Coast) Jean-Jacques Annaud
1977: Madame Rosa (France) Moshe Mizrahi
1978: Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (France) Bertrand Blier
1979: Tin Drum (West Germany) Volker Schlondorff
1980: Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (Soviet Union Vladimir Menshov
1981: Mephisto (Hungary) Istvan Szabo
1982: To Begin Again (Spain) Jose Luis Garci
1983: Fanny and Alexander (Sweden) Ingmar Bergman
1984: Dangerous Moves (Switzerland) Richard Dembo
1985: The Official Story (Argentina) Luis Puenzo
1986: The Assault (The Netherlands) Fons Rademakers
1987: Babette’s Feast (Denmark) Gabriel Axel
1988: Pelle the Conquerer (Denmark) Bille August
1989: Cinema Paradiso (Italy) Giuseppe Tornatore
1990: Journey of Hope (Switzerland) Xavier Koller
1991: Mediterraneo (Italy) Gabriele Salvatores
1992: Indochine (France) Regis Wargnier
1993: Belle Epoque (Spain) Fernando Trueba
1994: Burnt by the Sun (Russia) Nikita Mikhalkov
1995: Antonia’s Line (The Netherlands) Marleen Gorris
1996: Kolya (Czech Republic) Jan Sverak
1997: Character (The Netherlands) Mike Van Diem
1998: Life is Beautiful (Italy) Roberto Benigni
1999: All About My Mother (Spain) Pedro Almodovar
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China/Hong Kong/Taiwan/USA) Ang Lee
2001: No Man’s Land (Belgium) Danis Tanovic
2002: Nowhere in Africa (Germany) Caroline Link
2003: The Barbarian Invasions (Canada/France) Denys Arcand
2004: The Sea Inside (Spain) Alejandro Amenabar
2005: Tsotsi (South Africa) Gavin Hood
2006: The Lives of Others (Germany) Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
2007: The Counterfeiters (Austria) Stefan Ruzowitzky

Wins by Country (61 presented, 3 by double countries)
France 13
Italy 13
Germany 4
Japan 4
Russia 4
Spain 4
Czechoslovakia 3
The Netherlands 3
Sweden 3
Denmark 2
Switzerland 2

Others: Algeria, Ivory Coast, Canada, China/Hong Kong, Hungary, Belgium, Austria, So. Africa

Top Tens

My top 10 Foreign Language winners
(of those I’ve seen, about 2/3)
1. Cinema Paradiso (1989)
2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
3. The Lives of Others (2006)
4. Kolya (1996)
5. Nowhere in Africa* (2002)
6. Mephisto (1981)
7. Black Orpheus (1959)
8. War and Peace (1968)
9. Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)
10. The Shop on Main Street (1965)

Note: My favorite foreign film is Zhang Yimou’s Hero, which lost the Oscar in 2002 (to Nowhere in Africa), and is the highest-grossing film in Chinese history. Where are Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, Peterson's Das Boot, Trojan's Zelary and Meirelles' City of God (Brazil, FIVE Oscar nominations: Foreign Film, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Adapted Screenplay; Time Top-100 Alltime!)? Each is better than most of these.

Metalluk’s Top-Ten Oscar-Winning Foreign Language Films
10. Burnt By the Sun (1994)
9. No Man’s Land (2001)
8. Forbidden Games (1952)
7. The Official Story (1985)
6. Babette’s Feast (1987)
5. Life Is Beautiful (1998)
4. Amarcord (1974)
3. The Shop on Main Street (1965)
2. 8 1/2 (1963)
1. Cinema Paradiso (1989)

(Note: Metalluk has film blogs and an article on these with his reviews and ratings of each; check this out: Best Foreign Language Films)

Metalluk and I agreed on just 2 films, with Cinema Paradiso being our obvious concensus favorite, then The Shop on Main St. (I haven’t seen #10 choice). He thought Day for Night to be overrated, I always thought that of Babette’s Feast (zzz...), much preferring the visual food feast film from Taiwan, Eat Drink Man Woman – you can almost smell the food in that film.

Great Directors: James Ivory

American director (as I was corrected!) James Ivory, most often worked with Indian producer Ishmael Merchant, who died in 2005, concentrating their work primarily on adaptations of classic and modern literature. I've never seen an Ivory film that wasn't worth watching. My favorites are Heat and Dust, and A Room With a View, a BAFTA winner for Best Film:


Complete Filmography

The Householder (1963)
Shakespeare Wallah (1965)
Bombay Talkie (1970)
Savages (1972)
The Wild Party (1975)
Roseland (1977)
Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures (1978)
The Europeans (1979)
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)
Quartet (1981)
Heat and Dust (1983)
The Bostonians (1984)
A Room With a View (1986)
Maurice (1987)
Slaves of New York (1989)
Mr. And Mrs. Bridge (1990)
Howard’s End (1992)
Lumiere and Company (1995)
Jefferson in Paris (1995)
The Golden Bowl (2000)
The Five Forty-Eight (2002)
Le Divorce (2003)
The White Countess (2005)

Updown Virtual Stock Market Game Pays Real Money

Updown is a stock trading simulation site, you being with a virtual portfolio of one MILLION and you can trade real-time in any exchange listed stock. You can also start trading groups in addition to having your own portfolio, create friends lists, exchange messages on the site. It's a great way to improve your trading skills without any risk, and a great way to meet other traders to exchange ideas, or just argue. The site also allows and sponsors short-term trading contests, and pays real money per month for those traders that handily beat the SP500 for that month.

I've been there well over a year now. It's a lot of fun, it's FREE, give it a try - you'll be GLAD you did!

.. Enjoy! -- the Jman ..